We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #321

Mashup
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Facebook introduces Instant Video for Messenger
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After Instagram launched the Snapchat-like Stories feature last month, Facebook has taken another Snapchat feature for its own, as users can now share instant video with each other while using Messenger. When friends are both looking at the same chat thread, a button will pulse encouraging them to send a vid.

Instagram Stories helps you find new people to follow
Instagram Stories is developing beyond its Snapchat counterpart to now suggest new people you should follow for new stories they think you’ll like, based on your current following habits and areas of interest. Instagram is sure that their suggestions will get lots of attention, as currently 100 million people visit the Explore tab every day. 


Instagram adds a zoom option
Finally users on Instagram can zoom in and out of videos and images, which is great as I definitely was NOT trying to like my ex’s holiday pics from 127 weeks ago. Brands have already started using the feature for all sorts of things, from getting to know Iceland better, to scavenger hunts, to taking a closer at KFC chicken nuggets. Think I prefer to consume mine in ignorance and in the dark, usually crying.

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Facebook Offers gets a revamp
Facebook Offers launched in 2012 and has now had a re-vamp to become more mobile-friendly. Businesses can create two types of Offers for users, either to be used online or in-store, with the ability to fully track a social ad all the way to purchase, even IRL. Users can save offers they see to a dedicated section to be used at a later date.

Facebook warns that slow site loading times could hinder ads
Facebook has advised brands to build better websites that load quickly and noted that the speed with which a website will load is one factor their ad delivery system uses to determine which ads to show which people, even warning that it could even prevent ads from being shown to users if the website they lead to is slow to load. Facebook is giving guidance on how to build more mobile-friendly sites with less code and smaller files, stating that 40% of users click away if a page takes three seconds or more to load.

Facebook vertical video ads go live
Demonstrated by the user rates of app such as Snapchat, it is obvious that the trend for vertical video is here to stay. Now Facebook has launched vertical video ads, with initial results showing they are three times more efficient than square video in terms of cost per impression.

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Snapchat make geofilters foolproof
People have been able to make their own geofilters for a while now, but only really very clever people who can use Photoshop. Now even us MS Paint users can have a go as Snapchat has created customisable geofilter themes, which you can use for birthdays, weddings and other special occasions like Tuesdays.

Twitter offers influencers a new way to make money on the platform
Twitter has announced that influencers will now have a new way to monetise their content on a bigger scale by opting in to run preroll ads in front of their videos for a share of the profits. The influencer will take home 70% of the revenue (more than the 45% currently offered by YouTube), with Twitter keeping 30%. Only Twitter approved users will be able to use the programme, so don’t try adding ads to your next cat video.

Twitter launches Promoted Stickers in the UK
Following the US launch, Brands in the UK can now create stickers for users on Twitter to attach to their photos acting as a kind of “visual hashtag”. The sticker can be clicked to search for other people using it and allows brands to monitor who is engaging with their content. One of the first brands to use Promoted Stickers in the UK is Warner Bros for its forthcoming Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

YouTube Creators get angry over ad-friendly policies
YouTube has a policy where it stops ads running over content it deems ‘objectionable’ and a new debate has started over what counts as objectionable and what doesn’t with many Creators becoming frustrated about their videos not being able to make money due to what they see as strict policies from YouTube which could potentially hinder freedom of speech.

Pinterest announces new targeting options
Pinterest has announced new and clever ways brands can target users more effectively. The first is by targeting people who have already engaged with your brand on Pinterest, so for instance if they’ve looked at a leather brand’s whip collection, they might target you with paddles next. Secondly, Pinterest ‘tags’ now mean that they can track users’ activity on your website, so if someone has previously bought a year’s supply of butter, they could then re-target them with a year’s supply of bread. And finally, there is now an ‘actalike’ re-target option. So once they’ve found your most valuable customers, who love your brand and buy a lot of sex toys/bread and butter etc., they will find people with similar behaviours as these people and target them with hopes of similar success.

Apple joins Twitter ahead of iPhone 7 launch
Not one to really partake in social media, an @apple Twitter account has appeared ahead of the iPhone 7’s rumoured launch on 7th September. The bio states that @apple joined Twitter in September 2011 but the account has been dormant and unverified until now (how very Willy Wonka’s factory of them!). Is something brewing pre-launch at @apple, are the cogs whirring for a huge social explosion from the brand? Only time will tell…